Family-friendly films find their seats in Oscar nominations

Films like "Saving Mr. Banks" and "Monsters University" were not some of the nominees for this year's Oscars, but others like "Frozen" made the list.

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By Herb Scribner

Journal Star

By Herb Scribner

Posted Jan. 16, 2014 at 5:23 PM

By Herb Scribner

Posted Jan. 16, 2014 at 5:23 PM

Family-friendly movies learned where they're sitting in the minds of the Oscar nominee voters.
On Jan. 16, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 86th annual Academy Awards, scheduled for March 2. Many of today's Hollywood stars - like Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale and Sandra Bullock - were highlighted on the list of nominees.
Several family-friendly films found nominations, too, including "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," "Star Trek Into Darkness," "The Lone Ranger" and "Iron Man 3" all being nominated for Best Visual Effects.
Recent fan favorite "Frozen" was nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. The film - which has seen growing success in the last couple of weeks with its soundtrack reaching the top of the Billboard 200 charts and its top song "Let It Go" becoming a viral phenomenon - will look to ice "Despicable Me 2" and "The Croods" in the Best Animated Feature category.
But the other Disney film, "Saving Mr. Banks," which tells the story of how "Mary Poppins" was made, was among the top snubs from the Oscar nominees this year, according to USA Today. The film was left off even though the Oscars nominated nine films for Best Picture instead of the allowed 10, USA Today reported.
"That was not very supercalifragilisticexpialidocious of them," USA Today said.
USA Today also listed actress Emma Thompson, who played "Mary Poppins" writer P.L. Travers and earned a Golden Globes nomination for her efforts, as an actress who was snubbed from earning a nomination. Tom Hanks, for his role as Walt Disney, was also left off the nomination list for Best Actor. He was previously nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes for his part as Captain Richard Phillips in "Captain Phillips."
In a surprise move, according to Variety writer Marc Graser, Pixar, which has won seven of the last 12 Oscars for Best Animated Feature, was shut out of the Oscars, as its recent film "Monster's University" wasn't selected by the academy. Pixar will now have to watch as Disney's "Frozen" takes center stage, Graser wrote.
And like with the Golden Globes nominations, many of the Oscars picks for the Best Picture category are comedies. "American Hustle," "The Wolf of Wall Street," "Her," and "Nebraska" were all nominated for the best comedy film category at the Golden Globes. It was "American Hustle" that took the award home on Jan. 12.%3Cimg%20src%3D%22http%3A//beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif%3Fcid%3D138008%26pid%3D46%22%20/%3E